Mauritius monthly trade statistics for February 2014 showed that higher exports helped lower the island economy’s trade deficit by 29.4% to Rs 3.29 billion compared to the year-ago period, according to a report released by Statistics Mauritius yesterday. Also, compared to the previous month, the trade deficit narrowed by as much as 35.3% in February 2014.
Data from Statistics Mauritius showed that the overall value of exports rose by 12.8% to Rs 7.4 billion compared to the year-ago period, and by 7.1% compared to the previous month. Compared to February 2013, this increase is mainly explained by the rise in sales of manufactured goods, which increased by 36% to Rs 711 million from Rs522 million a year ago. This was supported by a boost in sales of machinery and transport equipment by 101.8%, from Rs 164 million to Rs 331 million.
On the imports front, for the month February 2014, purchases fell by 4.7% compared to the corresponding period of 2013. This decrease is partly because the cost of minerals fuels and lubricants declined by 16% from Rs 2,934 million last February to Rs 2,471 million this February.
Besides, exports figures for the month of February 2014 showed that exports towards the main destinations for the island economy featured United Kingdom at first place, accounting for 15.4% of total exports.
UK was followed by France at 13.3% and USA at 10.5%.
On the other hand, Mauritian imports were mainly from India with 25.9%, China at 13.5%, France at 9.2% and South Africa at 7.1 %.
Image (Vessel Tracker): Data from Statistics Mauritius showed that the overall value of exports rose by 12.8% to Rs 7.4 billion compared to the year-ago period, and by 7.1% compared to the previous month.
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